Say hello to VersaStock—a talented motion graphics designer, director, and video editor who loves creating videos to help people share their stories.

From abstract video displays to eye-catching transitions VersaStock is channeling his creativity to help other creators. We caught up with him to find out about his journey as a video creator, his favorite trends, and his top tips for generating exciting template ideas.

What’s your background and how did you get into video template creation?

I’m a professional motion graphics designer, independent director, and video editor. I noticed while working on main design projects I always have “extra” material left over. For example, when you pitch your ideas like style frames or motion tests to a director or producer there are always some designs that didn’t make it to the final approval but are still pretty good. It made me think ‘how can I give this content a second life?’ I should confess, I was very skeptical about video templates at the beginning but decided to give it a go out of pure curiosity.

What do you love about working in video and why?

I love video as a creative medium. In my humble opinion, this is the best medium to tell stories. It has truly infinite possibilities to convey the message and most importantly you have a tool as a motion rhythm to find the right pace for your ideas and as a result a key to the heart of your audience.

What/who inspires your work?

Personally, music is a huge driving force to me and is the gateway to new concepts and ideas. I like to keep an eye on various studios and creative works to stay on trend. Works by Pentagram, Korb, Vucko, Illo, Yaniv Fridman, Elastic and others are very inspiring. I also create and moderate a group on Vimeo and Facebook – ‘Must See Showreels‘ to share motion design inspiration with more than 4K members.

How do you create high-quality video templates? What expert tips/tricks/hacks can you share?

This one is a tricky one. While working on a video template I refer to my personal professional experience and high standards for the quality of work. It means that you should treat your customers with respect and do your best to provide them with a product that they can easily use in their daily video production process.

It is important to remember that a lot of the customers on video template platforms are designers like yourself. For example, during my time working on one of the biggest national television channels in Australia, video templates were essential parts of the video production process even though they had a huge team of professional motion designers. The reason why they buy video templates is that it saves time—and time is a crucial factor in the broadcast industry. It mustn’t take ages to figure out how to use it. If you feel it is not straightforward then it is not a good product yet and you should do your best to make it as intuitive and simple as you can.

Where’s the most exciting place you’ve seen your items/footage used?

My item Passport | Broadcast Opener on Videohive was used as an opener for the Netflix docuseries Spycraft. That was very pleasant to see as they slightly remixed it and created a very cool opening title sequence. I really enjoy spy-themed docos and movies and seeing my work style resonate with the series creators and helping them to create the best show on the biggest streaming platform is very inspiring.

How has Envato helped your journey as a creator?

Using Envato video template platforms has helped me to understand how to channel my creativity to help other creators and independent directors. Creation of video templates requires a slightly different mindset than that of a ‘classic’ freelancer. It makes you think about how to make your product appeal to a wider audience so they can use it more like an asset and a universal tool to help solve their specific challenges and tasks more efficiently. This helps in freelance work as well, because you will often be asked to create an After Effects template to share with external production teams so they can do amends on their own. So this is a very useful skill for a creator.

What makes you most excited as a creator online?

It makes me less dependent on a full-time job and a monthly salary. It is also very important that there are no boundaries on what you can achieve as an online creator. With enough effort and a bit of luck, you can achieve way more than staying on the classic freelance project-to-the-next-project basis or on your full-time job alone.

Are there any video trends that you are loving at the moment?

I really like 2D graphics as a style and keep my eye mostly on them. I like the overall trend to keep it minimal on elements and how the motion designers optimize transition times in between various scenes. The recent trend that I’ve noticed is the ‘cut during the action’—and it is happening both in motion design and in the video editing industries like promo/trailer production.

What main programs, tools, or techniques do you use to create your work?

After Effects is my main tool and I like the fact that it is very flexible and you can boost it with very powerful scripts and expressions. I use almost all the Creative Suite. I started to use Blender a little bit more these days but I am still a newbie.

What are your top tips for video creators just starting out?

Be patient. It takes time to get to the point that you’d like to be and you’ll be there eventually.

How do you come up with new and exciting template ideas?

I like to start by asking myself what is the problem that you would like to solve or help other designers to solve? Sometimes ideas happen during my work on the projects, and sometimes when I see interesting graphic design solutions that would be great to have in motion. I’m still learning and there is no right answer on how to do it right. I would say listen to your intuition and ignore all the informational noise from time to time so you can be open enough to spot your next big idea.

Feeling inspired by VersaStock? Head over to Envato Elements and start creating today! Or, for more creative inspiration, check out our Q&A with video templates Author Dream_motion.